B.Y.O.M.S.

(Bring Your Own Medical Supplies)

See the giant needles up front? Yikes!!

Tomorrow I'll be going for the first of a series of five weekly injections* to my knee and -- to my surprise -- I discovered I have to bring the medical supplies with me!  All of them!:  the medication to be injected, the numbing agent, the disinfectant, the bandages and, worst of all, the syringes and needles. So I spent the afternoon at the pharmacy, gathering supplies and placing orders for the medication.

I just have to say, I do not like this system one bit.  Besides the vague feeling that I should not be trusted with the Very Important Medication that will be injected into my knee, I am also a bit disturbed about spending so much time with the needles that will be doing the injections.  There are 10 of them!  And they're big!  I'm really tempted to "lose" them but I know that will just postpone the inevitable.  So, I will suck it up, be a grown-up, and bring the stupid needles to the appointment.

But I am not happy about it.**


* Incidentally, I had this same injection last year in the U.S. but they conveniently do it in one super-sized injection -- 10 ml all at once rather than five separate injections of 2 ml each.  Whether it's worse to inject more at a time I don't know, but five visits = 10 injections (one of the medication, one to numb) = 10 needles!  I think I prefer the Super-Sized dose...


** On a happier note, we just returned from a week-long road trip through northern France (Normandy & Brittany) and I'll be back soon with the details and photos.